2009 Tenpin Bowling Australia Limited Membership Benefits Announcement

[Easy Tiger]

I still think it comes back to if you are a once a week league bowler, why would you want to pay for a TBA membership? As Wheelbarrow said, for a large number of leagues it is not compulsory. Another issue is having more than one body to affiliate with (TQI). I'm not here to knock anyone but many times I've been at league constitution meetings where a vote was taken to join either TBA or TQI, and have had to say if the league didn't go with TBA I wouldn't bowl in it. Not knocking TQI as I have done East Coast trials before and think it's great, but I don't think you should have two sanctioning choices.

 

[grumpie]

Great post Andrew S

I am sorry if I did not explain myself fully.

I am on our local board and am frustrated in trying to support TBA and get the local bowlers to join up. I was hoping this latest announcement could give me the ammunition to go out and "sell"

In our bowl it is voluntary to sanction in local league, therefore our numbers are dwindling.

How about using the insurance as a selling point.

When I was playing badminton, if you just wanted to play socially and didn't pay a membership fee, then you paid more for the games.

If you are not sanctioned in bowling maybe you should pay a higher game rate during league..........

Liz

 

[Ben A]

How about using the insurance as a selling point.

That's how the centre I bowl at will be selling the registration. I'm sure the seniors and the ladies will like the assurance that they are covered if they injure themselves or drop dead while bowling.

 

[gwhiting]

Not sure why people are complaining about having to pay for membership. The fee is token amounbt to be a member of the TBA.

As mentioned by Craig in very simple terms it's fantastic to go bowling and meet people.

Other sports have much higher fees such as cricket and golf club. My son plays $250.00 for cricket. What he gets is his games. If he only plays a few games then where's the value. He also has to take food for home games.

Imagine being a member of the Melbourne Football Club. Paying $160.00 and hardly seeing a win.

I bleieve that the TBA is making an effort to improve and if it involves a small price increase then so be it.

Let this committee have some time in office before we judge it.

 

[plpatford]

As a once a week league bowler I don't mind paying $27.50 membership for the year on top of my weekly playing fees. I am also a country bowler and still feel that this is very reasonable in comparison to other membership fees. I also have a junior bowler playing at state level and would happily pay the higher fee for him if he was required to do so. I believe that being a TBA member should be compulsory if you wish to bowl in a league, I have been bowling on & off for the last 30 years and have always payed my membership fees when I have been in a league.

 

[mcpeter]

Our local association problem is not the $27.00 fee, but that we only get back $5.00 per bowler. For 2008 we charged $12.50 per bowler for local fee aprox. $3600.00 for year now we will get $1400.00 to run on for year. Country Cups cost us $3000.00 per year.

 

[Thumpa]

Ben
Both my kids play soccer, this year when I paid their registration fee they were given a training shirt and a bag at least thats something back you can't even get chevrons anymore what about the people that are only new to the sport wouldn't it be great to give them something for nothing an award of acheivement can u remember when you got your first chevron I do it was a very long time ago and I still have it. The whole point of the matter is that bowling is becoming a very expensive sport yeah okay $27.00 membership + bowling ball + shoes not cheap at the end of the day
Thats my 2 bobs worth

 

[grumpie]

I can't think of any sport that is cheap to play.

Liz

 

[jason_doust]

The new TBA Fees aren't exactly outrageous. They're currently about the same price as 1980's ATBC fees, so you couldn't expect to run a chook raffle from that.

Silver membership is interesting. Basically a card that says "I'm trying out for national selection." Seems like administering those 20 folks fees and registration will cost more than it gets back.

 

[ThEOnE]

Do you get something in return when you pay a soccer registration, a golf registration, a cricket registration or any other type of sports registration? If you do, please say so, that way TBA can get an idea of what they can give back for $27.50.

I know that when I played soccer a couple of years back, I payed a $180 registration fee, I got NOTHING, no special discounts, no free drinks, just the ability to play once a week for only 6 months of the year.

I think a $27.50 registration fee for tenpin bowling is very good, and you can play every month of the year!!

You people that are paying all this money for registraions and get nothing back are getting ripped off! I pay $190 a year at my cricket club, from that we get half price entry to ALL club functions, a free mug with our name and a free drink every club training and game day, as well as playing shirt training shirt, and the ability to play on the best ground with the best facilities in the league!
And Football, well it used to be the other way round, would get paid to play at the worst club with the worst facilities!
To bowl i dont think it matters what you pay or wha you get back, it is what is percieved to be money we are giving to the elite teams to send them away. At local level tournaments we do our own fundrasing to run these events so what is meant by "money to run your sport", we run it ourselves anyway!
It is actually the vounteers that RUN the sport in our country, now if we paid a decent amount, say $50 sanction and it was compulsory, and they paid someone in each state to run tournaments, call round to each center to make sure they were up to scratch, legal with decent equipment or they would not be sanctioned themselves maybe our sport would be i dont know, taken seriously i guess?
Just a thought, What do you think?

 

[granto]

Well put Shayne. I could not agree more.
On the subject of game prices Wayne, they are cheaper when coached by a qualified TBA coach rather than just league rate. I should know as we are having our 2 sons coached at present. TBA would love to please all concerned however being in the public eye myself know that this will never be the case no matter how good the system is.

 

[CSP]

Unfortunately as soon as TBA made the 2009 Membership not compulsory it was a big mistake. You will not get the weekly league player to join. TBA should have made the membership compulsory and therefore an increase in membership for the sport would be great.

Centre's can still be sanctioned by paying their lane sanction fee and having none of their leagues sanctioned through not full bowler membership.

I totally disagree with the way this membership program has been structured and it's got nothing to do with the payment fees.

Ask yourself the question: How can tenpin bowling be called a sport when the membership base is not 100%? All other sports are 100% registered players. It's ridiculous.

 

[ShadowKnight]

The new TBA Fees aren't exactly outrageous. They're currently about the same price as 1980's ATBC fees, so you couldn't expect to run a chook raffle from that.

Agreed the new fees are not outrageous however back in the 80's there was a free rewards system that allowed the bowlers to see something tangible for their money. That system was not possible to be maintained, however the removal of that system left a very bad taste in every bowlers mouth. A taste that persists for many bowlers still. That is where the disappointment in the announcement is base I believe.

Based on the releases and announcements the only thing that is of any impact to bowlers is a hike in registration fees. That is unless you:

1. practice (assuming this will actually be a saving over and above current centre arrangements),
2. hurt yourself, or
3. want to become a coach

The only tangible benefit is the awards system which has sketchy information at best. In fact that also looks less than promising based on point 17 from the 2009 Membership Fees announcement found here http://www.tenpin.org.au/tba_announcements_2008.htm.

Personally, I think the price hike is required, however I would have liked to have seen something, at least one, benefit that would clearly show a benefit to being a member of the TBA. Sadly that opportunity has been missed ... again!

 

[kitkat23]

Gee in someway, im glad the old centre closed down here 20 years age.
when i started bowling at orange when i was 10, i was a registered player...had to be to play simple as that!!! But the Orange Association worked extreamly hard to make sure that we got what we deserved as players.
now im 23 and am working in a new centre in griffith, where the previous management and current owners, unfortunately dont or didnt know much if anything about the sport at all. (thats starting to change as they have now joined leagues and are starting to understand y we got cranky at them for talking to us on the approach as we were thrying to bowl!!!)
problem is here, is that because they had no interest in TBA, accreditation or chevrons etc, the older bowlers have dropped out cause they werent getting what they used to get, and the newer bowlers had no idea what the older bowlers used to get with recognition.
Its starting to catch on here though...some people still have no interest in joining the TBA and thats fine. My General manager said yesterday that the leagues don't have to be accredited for players to get their chevrons etc (this is from the TBA itself) so here, whats going to happen is the players who register will get the recognition and those who dont wont get them to show off their hard work.
My only hope at the moment is that once the non interested bowlers see what they are missing out onn then they will change their minds. You gotta be able to crawl before you can walk and run really and thats whats happening here. The TBA is going to review it every year for the next 3 years, so next year we might see what we want to see happen, but only if we let them know what it is we want. as gwhiting said lets give the committee some time in office before we judge it.
just my views

 

[jockey]

Agreed the new fees are not outrageous however back in the 80's there was a free rewards system that allowed the bowlers to see something tangible for their money. That system was not possible to be maintained, however the removal of that system left a very bad taste in every bowlers mouth. A taste that persists for many bowlers still. That is where the disappointment in the announcement is base I believe.

Both the MTBA and CTBAM have always provided pins and chevrons to bowlers free of charge if their secretary applied for them for as long as I've been sanctioned by either body. Sorry to see that this is not the case in your area.

Now the paltry fee the asscoiations get to keep will not allow them to continue to provide their existing services that might I add encourage all bowlers of any level to continue to bowl.

I don't see bowler retention coming for a long time from the 90% the TBA keeps in time to save our sport which has just been moved into intensive care from the emergency ward after a minor promising recovery.

 

[slugga]

What annoys me as a bowler, is that we have a governing body that has given us less & less as the years go by, and now we are compelled to give to our state body the same amount we (as an association) are allowed to charge.
I have been bowling since 1961 and am at a loss to remember what our state "body" did, or will do for us.
We have our AGM coming up soon, & I will definately 2nd any motion not to continue any alliance with TBAL if they wish to continue to tell associations that only $5 out of their contributions will benefit members.

 

[kouta86]

Do any of the State Associations have any comment on the proposed fee structure? I havent seen anything as yet

 

[Vaughnn]

Paul,

As far as state associations, I understand Victoria is the only state that has large, non-centre based associations (CTBAM and MTBA).

The Victorian Associations lobbied hard and successfuly last year at this same time of the year to have the fees kept low.
I am not sure the exact contributers of the TBAL Delphi, but am not aware of any input from the CTBAM at least - as you know one of the two main assocs in Victoria.

The CTBAM will make a recommendation to all the nominated representatives from leagues at their Annual AGM in a couple of weeks, which will be voted on at that time by those representatives.

Vaughnn

 

[CHIN]

Seems like the same complaints as last year, & the year before that, & the year before that, & that year before that.

Nothings changed.

Instead of sitting around every year waiting for October, November to come around so you can grizzle about the same BS.
Maybe if some people put as much effort into trying to do something about it as they do whinging every year maybe things would be different.

 

[wchester]

Seems like the same complaints as last year, & the year before that, & the year before that, & that year before that.

Nothings changed.

Instead of sitting around every year waiting for October, November to come around so you can grizzle about the same BS.
Maybe if some people put as much effort into trying to do something about it as they do whinging every year maybe things would be different.

Rob,
Maybe you didn't notice that earlier this year I nominated for a position on the TBA board, flew to Sydney for the AGM and received the cold shoulder from all the voting delegates. So until the day that the incumbant board is decidely changed to include members who want change, I'll just continue to voice my opinions on Totalbowling for all to read....Now what is it that you're doing to make a difference?